Hi, everyone. It's 4 o'clock in New York. We come on the air today with the breaking news that FBI director Christopher Ray has today announced his resignation.

Ray made that announcement at an all-hands meeting a few hours ago, saying he will leave when the Biden administration comes to an end

and saying this, quote, after weeks of careful thought, I've decided the right thing for the Bureau

is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down.

My goal is to keep the focus on our mission, the indispensable work you're doing on behalf of the American people every day.

In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.

It remains to be seen whether the FBI can even attempt to

avoid being dragged deeper into the fray, as Ray seems to be suggesting, or whether his resignation

simply plunges it deeper into uncertainty and leaves the workforce without its leader.

Ray had three years left on a 10-year term. It's a 10-year term that is put in place to ensure departures don't line up with the end of a current administration. It's to ensure the independence of the FBI from all partisan politics. He was, though, appointed by Donald Trump, who initially approved of him

quite a bit. Here's what he said about Ray in 2018. I think Christopher Ray is very different from

Comey, which is what you need. You need different. You need like the opposite. And he's moving

step by step. And you're going to see a whole new, very proud FBI. I think that the Justice Department

will end up being great. It's all going to happen. It's all going to work out. But I tried to stay

as much uninvolved as I can.

It wasn't true at the time and certainly isn't now. But back to Ray. What changed? New York Times

report says, quote, it was the Bureau's scrutiny of Trump that almost certainly cut short Ray's tenure. Here's what he told our colleague, Kristen Walker, this past Sunday. I can't say I'm thrilled with him. He invaded my home. I'm suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. What I'm going to say is I

certainly cannot be happy with him. The facts are this. The FBI conducted a court-ordered search

of Mar-a-Lago after months of wrangling in which the National Archives and the Department of Justice

repeatedly tried to

get back sensitive national security documents and secrets from Donald Trump.

But it was the facts, as they were revealed by the work of the FBI, that so enraged Donald

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